Medical trial and diet advice

[MyGirl]

Hello,

 

I am due to take part in a medical trial soon and for 4 months I am not allowed alcohol, caffine etc... Now the alcohol I can just about cope with as its pretty straight forward what I can and cannot have.

 

The difficult bit is the caffine, as I cannot have tea, coffee etc... not even caffine free. This also includes chocolate and energy drinks.

 

My question is, what warm drinks are out there that I can replace my many cups of tea with. Also, daily soft drinks other than water.

 

Thanks, hope you can come up with some nice alternatives!

[madi_faye]

i dont really think your gonna find any good enough subtitutes tbh, can i ask why your not allowed decaf coffee etc?

 

i like things like 7up free if i'm not having caffeine (sugar and caffeine free), hot water with lemon? (water- sorry i know!)

 

Your probably gonna have wthdrawl symptoms too, but then again ill bet after 4 months your body will run so much better; your sleep, digestion etc

 

Good luck!

[Plain Talker]

There are powdered drinks like "Milo" (unfortunately, as nice as it tastes, it's made by Nestle ) and Barleycup (tastes like a chicory and coffee blend, but no caffeine)

[medusa]

There are loads of caffeine free herbal teas, at least some of which should hit your spot. There's a huge selection, depending on whether you like sweet and fruit flavbours or would prefer the plain herbal sorts.

 

Unfortunately green tea still has too much caffeine in it for you to have, but have you thought about asking whether you could have rooibos tea (also known as redbush)? That's made from a bush which is very closely related to the tea bush (all normal tea is made from Camellia sinensis, and rooibos is made from another species of Camellia) and it tastes quite similar to standard tea but it's naturally got no caffeine at all in it.

 

I can understand why they wouldn't want you to have decaff tea and coffee since they still have trace amounts of caffeine in them, but I'd be surprised if they disallowed rooibos.

[margarete]

Dandelion coffee does not contain caffeine. You might like to try it.

 

Hot milk occasionally?

 

There are also chicory drinks, some of which do not contain caffeine. Some people drink them in place of coffee.

[aliceBB]

Good luck with the trial. You will probably find that once you have got over the initial withdrawal symptoms for the caffeine (2-4 days of headache/thick head, bit like a hangover really) you will be happy just drinking lots of water and you will not crave the tea/coffee as much as you think you will.

 

You'll also feel less bloated as drinking lots of water helps gets rid of excess water stored in your cells (as well as helping to metabolise fat) so the weight will come off faster too, assuming you are eating healthily and exercising.

[salsafan]

Oh, there lots and lots of warm drinks available. Most of them are under the "fruit tea" categories. Though, I too try to drink the more useful ones. The ones that help digestions and things like that.

 

Camomile. (From the camomile plant. Helps reduce stress and anxiety. Good as night drink.)

Peppermint tea. (Helps indigestions. Drink after a meal ?)

Lemon water. (Yes, HOT lemon water with honey. Good as a breakfast drink. Or a detox alternative.)

 

These are common ones, but there are so many more dried flower or fruit plants which are now used as tea alternatives. Or hot chocolates. Aloe vera drinks? Barley drinks? Rice milk? Soya milk ?

[Twiglet]

Horlicks! yum.

[alys]

Hot water with lemon, or warm milk!